I always find it weird that this blog started in 2009. In some ways, it feels much older. In others, it feels odd how long ago certain posts were made.

This 2012 year-ending post is about my best post of 2009. Why 2009? Because of several things. One, I used to do more double posting on single days to where I don’t think certain posts got as much visibility. Two, I’m constantly surprised by how many of my “these are quintessential ideas” posts were made right away for this blog, even if that makes perfect sense – pent up supply as it were. Three, if I’m going to do an annual review, I don’t want to skip any years.

I went through and rated all of my 2009 posts. I don’t feel compelled to inflict those ratings upon my readers. Nor, do I have much confidence in my first pass ratings. Ignoring a “classic” post (Durga Syn), I rated 10 of my posts with the highest rating.

Oh, I should explain my system just to give a better idea of what’s normal. Unlike how I rate cards, with the InQuest system of average being two stars, I went with a more even distribution of:

*

Sucks

**

Poor

***

Average

****

Superior

*****

Great

With “Great” not meaning perfect or life-changing, but in theory, clearly better than “Superior”.

Two are RPG play theory. One is going back and looking at my own V:TES history. Two are reviews of new products for games I have played a great deal – Conan RPG and V:TES, respectively. Two are about Ultimate Combat! It’s interesting just how many posts I had about Ultimate Combat! in 2009; obviously, as I never got to playing regularly again, there hasn’t been much material for subsequent posts. One about how to play V:TES better. One on metagaming for major tournament play. And, the last on what I wanted to see and not see out of Heirs to the Blood.

To determine the best, I have to put great weight on gravitas. The two reviews are light fare for me, even if The Warrior’s Companion review is quite dense. Of the remaining posts, the only one that doesn’t have as timeless a quality is “2009 NAC, No, But …”, even though “Inheritance” was also a product of its age. “Bleeding, at stealth” had a lot more that could be said, or it could have been said cleaner – I still believe that it’s an important topic because 16 years of playing V:TES has shown me that a lot of people just don’t get how to play stealth bleed, supposedly the most basic of decks. “Inheritance” can’t keep up with the graviton generating powers of some of the RPG theory.

“Deck Stats” could use an update, technically, but there’s something much more enlightening about taking a look at my own tournament winning decks before more recent wins, and I doubt there’s a lot to be learned by revisiting more than I have already done so in other posts. As self-aggrandizing as it may seem, I find it to be possibly the most elegant post I’ve ever made, lacking the verbosity of many of my posts, analyzing data in a way that was intriguing to me. For all that, it doesn’t have as much to say.

That leaves two Ultimate Combat! posts and two RPG theory posts. “RPG Balance” is not as important to me as a concept as the idea of getting RPGers on the same page. Meanwhile, while I believe I have two of the most important articles on Ultimate Combat! ever published, that’s not saying a whole lot in the grand scheme of things. The deck construction one is better written, methinks of the two.

Which just leaves, “What Makes A RPG Campaign Work?”

I think I have had* important things to say about gaming, but it is hard to conceive of a more enduring philosophy than being on the same page when it comes to RPGs.

* I may still have, though, in noticing how many philosophies of mine I touched upon in year one of this blog, I must say I do repeat certain themes much more than I expected.

I welcome thoughts on which of my posts were better *or* worse. For any year.

David and Brandon did much raaahhhrrr. Andy and I did much hhhar-har-har. Aaron had to defend all day. I rushed some with Oppugnant Night not being as effective as I was intending due to the power of Fake Out and Dodge against my largely Desert Eagleless Blood Brothers.

Ultimately, the game was not much to write about, with Brandon dying, David having something like 10 vampires in torpor at some point between intercept combat in front and rush combat behind, and my realizing after the game that I forgot to put in any strategy for ousting my prey. Time out with just the one oust.

I put one on Gabriel de Cambrai. Turn two, Brandon has Pentweret. James has Apache Jones, adds Sayshila. Aaron has Cameron, then Marianna to be all punchy. David Soul Gems Huitz into Beast, losing Huitz to combat and Brandon’s diablerie.

Gabriel learns the all important master Obfuscate rather than the irrelevant master Auspex and largely fails to stop FoS bleeds for 3-5. James does pull off his combo of Lunatic Eruption, Millicent Smith, plus lending me intercept with Tourette’s Voice and Babble, but it’s all for naught as Malabranca only steals one pool a turn from my prey and I only play two Art Scams – the turn two one and the same card I pull back with turn three Ashur Tablets (the only card I recurse). Having forgotten how I built the deck, I realized after looking through it why I didn’t see anything other than Quicken Sight for Auspex cards – there weren’t any. Top card of Quicken Sight, though, might have saved me and may have not in the crucial “stop Nakhthorheb from gaining Blithe Acceptance when Brandon has Millicent” turn.

Since it was late and the next day was the tourneys, I packed up and went home and found out the next day what happened. Oddly, I was maybe two turns from ousting my prey as I had Palla Grande in hand and there was a lack of defense against bleeds at stealth to my left. Of course, it’s often the case that I’m finally ready to inflict grievous injury upon my prey right around when I get ousted, since it usually takes me an hour and a half or so to get around to being ready for the inflict grievous injury phase of the game.

Having not learned his lesson about playing Brandon’s Tumnimos deck, Andy played it again and somehow failed to get a VP with Week of Nightmares in play. Alex did a lot of Conviction stuff early, so it looked like it might be Imbued even after Beatrice came up – just turned out to be the usual off-Imbued use of Beatrice, with Ossian joining Saulot. Ossian was an annoyance because I had to play around him, plus I kept an Invoke Poison Glands in hand from beginning to last turn of the game to randomly annihilate Beatrice. But, Beatrice, even with Crusader Sword, never fought with me.

Adam did stuff and received Jar-age to the Famed Isabel. His The Unmasking made a real mess of things between my prey, his Akhenaten(!), and my Tunnel Runner. I had to keep Tunnel Runner on “D” for most of the game (up until Adam got ousted) because I had only two vampires and TR was my best defender. The game ground on, with David’s Muaziz getting Sensory Depped, though Rutor’s Hand meant she was functional. David’s lack of blood and getting beaten down by Ossian made it hard for him to get a pool depleted Andy. I did mistakenly block Andy’s Raven Spy while Adam was still bouncing/bleeding Andy to death because I just figured he could play a stealth card. Having tooled up forever with Shaman, Murder, Akunanse Remains, Ancestor Spirit, I finally realized how little time was left in the game and pushed impotently forward. Alex was very close to the oust, theoretically with Saulot Camera Phone, Uriel, and Ossian Fame rushing crosstable on Andy. Beatrice had been punked and efforts were made to go after her in convalescent care, but even Sprinkles, the Underbridge Stray, couldn’t feast upon her soul.

Like I don’t see the Jar deck all of the frickin’ time. Kaahh. By the way, I was quite unimpressed with how many decks people were playing that I had seen before, from within the area and without. I just can’t understand how people don’t get bored playing the same deck over and over, but that’s me.

This was kind of amusing, though Kenneth was quickly dispatched and Aaron found my lack of prey containment not so enthralling. David doesn’t get Muaziz right away, so weenie Dom guys bleed me, with whoever 3 cap and his skill card getting Archon Investigated to slow the beats. Rick puts out Mistress Fanchion. Aaron blocks many with Zoe the master (Ivory Bow) archer, including Kenneth’s Lutz. Kenneth is at 4 pool after Lutz, Brandywine, and Helicopter, but is around long enough for David to try to Graverob, Eagle Sight blocked by Aaron, followed by Raw Recruit, not followed by Muaziz chomping as Raw Recruit succeeded.

My Ugadja was offended by active Skin Eaters and decided to Deep Song rush Muaziz, which led to Muaziz’s hands and a Horde of Canine burying the Skin Eaters somewhere safe. Later Jars were delayed by Aaron’s intercept.

With Uchenna, Ugadja, Bamba, and little pool because of constant bleeds from my predator, I did little to my prey except burn his Mob Connections. My prey, on the other hand, bled Aaron some and contested Ivory Bow, depriving Aaron of combat threat value. Aaron’s game went from hefty to shifty after Kenneth was gone due to Pulsed Aleph being consumed by Skin Eaters and the lack of Ivory. I had a way to survive Fame on Uchenna, bleed, and a Skin Eater rush, but I was so low in pool that I had to block a stupid Gargoyle bleed after being bled to one by Muaziz’s 5 bleed, meaning I couldn’t wake, intercept Muaziz rush, Skin of Night in combat the Skin Eaters.

Shame for Aaron and my reputation as an effectual player. I had been sitting on Fear of Mekhet almost all game, not being sure of what to do with Kenneth still in the game, then having to wait for Fanchion to get below 5 blood. I also just drew The Kiss of Ra, so possibly on Rick’s next turn, Fanchion would have been gone. Then, a turn later, some Tremere fattie, like Oliver Thrace takes a nap over some pathetic action of mine.

Game times out. Then, things get cra-a-a-zy. Twenty person tournament. Only two of the finalists had game wins. Three finalists had 1.5 VPs each round, including Aaron and David. Dennis Lien won with a Tariq deck.

I played two casual games with mostly Davis players. First was quick with a bunch of Anarch Revolts. The second was slow and we cleaned up when it was apparent that no one was going to be ousted before the qualifier. I did get amused by my Lucian, The Perfect not being threatened by !Toreador to the right or Blood Brothers(!) to the left (both group 2 circles were being played in the game, neither was all that threatening in combat, playing lots of Shell Games and whatnot). I had a hand of Make an Example, Eyes of Argus, Telepathic Misdirection, and four Tastes of Vitae at one point. Sadly, this deck’s highpoint over the weekend was this game.

I don’t know what James’s deck was trying to do as he brought out Shemti and Nana, but I know he voted. Kenneth brought out Saulot and Elena made an Infernal Pact to learn the evil that is Obeah. He Spirit Marionetted some but took so long bringing out Saulot, I bled him a couple of times with Loss and then ignored him as I dealt with the menace. Chris was not a menace, simply a speed bump as I blocked Dragos bleeding with Evan Rogers because, seriously, a 3 cap with Cel/Qui does not fear anything, and then, I ignored him as Jeff rolled through him with the power of voting and Selma, the Legendary Vampire, bleeding.

When Jeff got to me, I not only was Blood Awakening low due to having discarded a couple thinking Chris would survive longer but really didn’t have an answer to more than two stealth anyway. I could have reduced bleeds, but Jeff cheated by playing a vote deck when no one bothered with vote defense. Jeff may have swept, it hardly mattered.

Ah, four players, such a different experience. To my benefit in this case. Joel got hammered by bounced bleeds and Alicia Barrows and Stavros bleeding. Steve didn’t vote before Stavros between Joel’s Lazverinus and Amenophobis. Both were not so good for him for obvious reasons. Laz rushed a lot but couldn’t finish off Alicia or Stavros when needed, leaving Joel to be a non-existent predator. Brett worried me as he could easily sweep if he got Steve. I happened to have Bakr pop up, and, much to my surprise, Bakr went on a killing spree, napping Amenophobis to prevent bounce, napping Alicia, waving his Weighted Walking Stick angrily when not Tasting of the Death. Who would have guessed that rush would be so useful?

Meanwhile, with no predator, I got out other dudes, so I ended up with Evan with Quietus skill card, Monty Coven, and two Webs. I had four Blood Awakening in hand at one point and untapped three guys with Eluding and two Sunrises when Brett hunted to annoy Steve in a turn after he finally got Joel. With Brett largely bloodless and just Renenet and Waters doing Eternal bleeds, I wasn’t worried he would get Steve. Nor was I that offended by his Suddening my Agent of Power on a Web. I bled them both out in the same turn, two Loss bleeds for Steve.

GW and 3 VPs was only enough in this event to tie for seventh with Ben Peal of all folks. David lost a coin flip to Dennis for fifth with a bunch of folks at 4 VPs. Jeff Kuta won the finals fairly quickly while I was running home to look for cards to trade people, including Shorb who was going to leave early the next morning.

Played a casual after doing some trading, and had to face Brandon’s weenie Presence vote deck and David’s Great Beast deck and Brandon’s fat FoS deck for the umpteenth times.

Lucian, The Perfect got Heroic in his Might, Marked Well, and put on the Leather. But, I basically did nothing all game as I kept getting bled and didn’t draw any bounce, unlike the casual earlier where I drew something like five TMs. Brandon did oddly Pentex Lucian and burn him with Justicar Retribution, the only effect of the latter being to deprive me of bleed reduction with Ancestor’s Insight and the former being irrelevant to my inability to block FoS after David dies. At least I was able to keep Lucian perfect and never bleed with him in either game.

Lutz didn’t slow Brandon’s voting down much, only accelerating pool damage to Brandon’s second prey. Brandon got vote lock, a bunch of dudes, and I didn’t interact with him all game as my deck didn’t have that much intercept and Osebo Kholo didn’t end up mattering. Ben got me without too much trouble – see lack of bleed bounce. Then, the endgame was an interesting match of Brandon’s winnie swarm with no library and FoS big bleed. I figured Ben had it due to pool counts, only Ben Daring the Dawned Porphyrion to be able to play Redeem the Lost Soul, only to have Nakhthorheb Pentexed for lockdown.

Thank yous, of course, to Andrew and Eric Haas for hosting, Brandon and Andrew Haas for organizing and running and getting food and drink (though I didn’t partake of either), players showing up, especially those who traveled far, such as the SoCal players.

Was there a lesson to be learned from the events?

First, I’m done with Experiment #2. Still have sample size issues with saying whether my Ass deck was viable, since it performed in only a single game, a game in which I had no predator. It was amusing, though, to have Bakr run around killing folks. It was amusing to put a hunting ground in play with a deck with no master pool gain and not feel bad. Sadly, I can’t say I was playing a rush deck as Bakr is just in there for disciplines.

I may do some more experiments, but the Lords of the Night one was so discouraging with how many things don’t exist in the set to make diverse decks that I don’t know if I can stomach playing more boring decks that can’t play staples of the game, like Blood Doll. I might do something like a precon and open up some boosters every once in a while just because I have so many loose boosters from so many different sets lying around.

Second, is there anything to be drawn from how I sucked at these tournaments where I played decks I built specifically for tournament play and won 50% of the tournaments when we trekked down to SoCal playing decks only built for casual play as I was too lazy to build some dedicated tournament decks?

As mentioned in the vekn.net forums, I thought I’d take a look at the rarity breakdown of my V:TES tournament winning decks.

Why?

I don’t believe that rares are needed for V:TES or that there’s a significant advantage to having them. But, where’s the proof? In the Christmas pudding?

Actually, it will probably just be funny rather than enlightening to take a look. Generally just going to assign rarity based on what was reasonably available at the time (to my recollection), with vampire rarity for library cards being uncommon and ignoring fixed rarity for library cards (since that’s how other CCGs handle fixed rarity).

Why in December and not January, when the full year’s results will be in?

Because we have been having our qualifier weekend in late December the past few years, which has worked well attendancewise. Because I used to care much more about clan results as a determiner of what sort of decks I might play in tournaments.

I’m not really into the clan paradigm anymore. I have a bit of interest in the discipline paradigm, i.e. what disciplines have I never won with. But, mostly, I think about what sort of concepts would be notable to win with, e.g. the “no decision” deck or the “play no cards” deck.

Still, it’s always an interesting way to cut the data. So, data cutting:

Clan

Sect

Wins 2011

Wins 2012

Total

Brujah

Camarilla

13

6

19

Caitiff

Camarilla

1

2

3

Gangrel

Independent

2

7

9

Malkavian

Camarilla

17

13

30

Nosferatu

Camarilla

7

2

9

Toreador

Camarilla

13

12

25

Tremere

Camarilla

8

15

23

Ventrue

Camarilla

19

12

31

Grand Total

149

Original gangsta, clans and Caitiff. I have 66 less TWDs for 2012 than 2011, so we can expect a dropoff on average. Gangrel and Tremere clearly buck that trend. Good to see Gangrel do something in 2012 after a tremendous tumble.

How do I know they took a tremendous tumble in recent years?

Clan

Sect

Wins – Total

Wins – All

Last 2 – %

Brujah

Camarilla

19

68

28%

Caitiff

Camarilla

3

16

19%

Gangrel

Independent

9

82

11%

Malkavian

Camarilla

30

131

23%

Nosferatu

Camarilla

9

72

13%

Toreador

Camarilla

25

99

25%

Tremere

Camarilla

23

91

25%

Ventrue

Camarilla

31

145

21%

Here is a breakdown of wins in the last two years, wins all time, and the percentage of the wins that occurred in the last two years. Unsurprisingly, Brujah have done better more recently. I’m kind of surprised, however, at how the numbers are across the board. I guess in the absence of new toys for other sects, the old guard does well.

Another way to look at percentage of wins within the “class” Camarilla for the last two years and for all time is:

Clan

Sect

Last 2 – %

All – %

Brujah

Camarilla

13%

10%

Caitiff

Camarilla

2%

2%

Gangrel

Independent

6%

12%

Malkavian

Camarilla

20%

19%

Nosferatu

Camarilla

6%

10%

Toreador

Camarilla

17%

14%

Tremere

Camarilla

15%

13%

Ventrue

Camarilla

21%

21%

This shows what percentage each “clan” has within the “class” = Camarilla. So, throughout all of time and space, Malks and Ventrue each have about 20% of the Cammie wins. That hasn’t changed in the last two years. However, Brujah have 10% of all wins for these “clans” but have 13% of the wins for them in 2011-2012. Bit clearer on the Gangrel dropoff, also brings up a Nos dropoff.

Clan

Sect

Wins 2011

Wins 2012

Total

Assamite

Independent

7

4

11

Follower of Set

Independent

6

8

14

Giovanni

Independent

10

12

22

Ravnos

Independent

2

3

5

Grand Total

52

Not all that exciting. Ravnos are suffering, whatever.

Clan

Sect

Wins – Total

Wins – All

Last 2 – %

Assamite

Independent

11

50

22%

Follower of Set

Independent

14

62

23%

Giovanni

Independent

22

91

24%

Ravnos

Independent

5

41

12%

Ravnos not keeping pace in recent years compared to historical norm. I’m really only using this chart to show all time wins, which I’ll get to more, later.

Clan

Sect

Last 2 – %

All – %

Assamite

Independent

21%

20%

Follower of Set

Independent

27%

25%

Giovanni

Independent

42%

37%

Ravnos

Independent

10%

17%

Wow, this is unexpected. In all of time and space, Ravnos only have 17% of Indie wins?!? But, clown car … What are the Assamites doing owning 20% of Indie winnage?

Clan

Sect

Wins 2011

Wins 2012

Total

Brujah antitribu

Sabbat

4

2

6

Gangrel antitribu

Sabbat

13

9

22

Lasombra

Sabbat

7

9

16

Malkavian antitribu

Sabbat

8

6

14

Nosferatu antitribu

Sabbat

0

1

1

Pander

Sabbat

2

1

3

Toreador antitribu

Sabbat

2

2

4

Tremere antitribu

Sabbat

11

6

17

Tzimisce

Sabbat

6

6

12

Ventrue antitribu

Sabbat

12

8

20

Grand Total

115

Well, yet again, time to remind people that !Gangrel do just fine in the modern meta. Then, you get real losers.

Clan

Sect

Wins – Total

Wins – All

Last 2 – %

Brujah antitribu

Sabbat

6

24

25%

Gangrel antitribu

Sabbat

22

49

45%

Lasombra

Sabbat

16

86

19%

Malkavian antitribu

Sabbat

14

90

16%

Nosferatu antitribu

Sabbat

1

28

4%

Pander

Sabbat

3

27

11%

Toreador antitribu

Sabbat

4

55

7%

Tremere antitribu

Sabbat

17

60

28%

Tzimisce

Sabbat

12

79

15%

Ventrue antitribu

Sabbat

20

77

26%

Welp, obviously the fortunes of !Gangrel and !Toreador have gone in opposite directions. !Nos have had it rougher, but since they’ve always sucked, it’s easier to forget them.

Clan

Sect

Last 2 – %

All – %

Brujah antitribu

Sabbat

5%

4%

Gangrel antitribu

Sabbat

19%

9%

Lasombra

Sabbat

14%

15%

Malkavian antitribu

Sabbat

12%

16%

Nosferatu antitribu

Sabbat

1%

5%

Pander

Sabbat

3%

5%

Toreador antitribu

Sabbat

3%

10%

Tremere antitribu

Sabbat

15%

10%

Tzimisce

Sabbat

10%

14%

Ventrue antitribu

Sabbat

17%

13%

Ten Sabbies means 10% of all wins is equivalence, if not necessarily ideal. I mean, why shouldn’t Lasombra and Tzimisce have higher percentages given that the antitribu share a bunch with their Cam-a-lot?

Not surprising that !Malks have such a large all time percentage or that it has gone down over time as Malks stole their discipline (identity).

Clan

Sect

Wins 2011

Wins 2012

Total

Abomination

Independent

1

0

1

Ahrimanes

Sabbat

9

4

13

Baali

Independent

9

6

15

Blood Brother

Sabbat

1

1

2

Daughter of Cacophony

Independent

5

0

5

Gargoyle

Independent

6

4

10

Harbinger of Skulls

Sabbat

1

1

2

Kiasyd

Sabbat

4

6

10

Nagaraja

Independent

0

1

1

Salubri

Independent

4

2

6

Salubri antritribu

Sabbat

1

0

1

Samedi

Independent

3

0

3

True Brujah

Independent

4

5

9

Grand Total

78

One might think that bloodlines would do well this year, given that they were the last freshness of cards. Apparently not, as the bloodline win total drops from 48 to 30. In case I don’t note it elsewhere, 22% of all bloodline wins happened in 2011, so it’s more likely that 2011 was just a massive aberration.

Clan

Sect

Wins – Total

Wins – All

Last 2 – %

Abomination

Independent

1

2

50%

Ahrimanes

Sabbat

13

46

28%

Baali

Independent

15

33

45%

Blood Brother

Sabbat

2

5

40%

Daughter of Cacophony

Independent

5

13

38%

Gargoyle

Independent

10

35

29%

Harbinger of Skulls

Sabbat

2

6

33%

Kiasyd

Sabbat

10

30

33%

Nagaraja

Independent

1

1

100%

Salubri

Independent

6

18

33%

Salubri antritribu

Sabbat

1

6

17%

Samedi

Independent

3

11

27%

True Brujah

Independent

9

12

75%

Um, yeah, last two years kind of good for bloodlines.

Clan

Sect

Last 2 – %

All – %

Abomination

Independent

1%

1%

Ahrimanes

Sabbat

17%

21%

Baali

Independent

19%

15%

Blood Brother

Sabbat

3%

2%

Daughter of Cacophony

Independent

6%

6%

Gargoyle

Independent

13%

16%

Harbinger of Skulls

Sabbat

3%

3%

Kiasyd

Sabbat

13%

14%

Nagaraja

Independent

1%

0%

Salubri

Independent

8%

8%

Salubri antritribu

Sabbat

1%

3%

Samedi

Independent

4%

5%

True Brujah

Independent

12%

6%

The most interesting thing here is how stable the bloodlines have been internally to their bloodline “class”. Of course, when most bloodlines wins have been in the last two years, then, obviously, the all time percentages are going to correlate strongly to recent percentages. Still, only Trujah feel like an outlier and that’s to be expected now that they have learned the power of Auspex bleed bounce.

Clan

Sect

Wins 2011

Wins 2012

Total

Akunanse

Laibon

6

3

9

Guruhi

Laibon

9

7

16

Ishtarri

Laibon

6

4

10

Osebo

Laibon

3

1

4

Grand Total

39

Whatever? Hold on, sweet chariot! So, in 2011-2012, Laibon have half as many wins as bloodlines? Well, at least they collectively beat the Ventrue. Go Laibon!

Clan

Sect

Wins – Total

Wins – All

Last 2 – %

Akunanse

Laibon

9

24

38%

Guruhi

Laibon

16

26

62%

Ishtarri

Laibon

10

26

38%

Osebo

Laibon

4

14

29%

And –

Clan

Sect

Last 2 – %

All – %

Akunanse

Laibon

23%

27%

Guruhi

Laibon

41%

29%

Ishtarri

Laibon

26%

29%

Osebo

Laibon

10%

16%

No shocker that Nana has made the Guruhi sexy. Osebo are becoming forgotten. Though, all of the Laibon have been doing better in recent years.

Let’s look at some deltas. Here we have the biggest losers from 2011 to 2012:

Clan

Sect

Total

Imbued

Imbued

-8

Brujah

Camarilla

-7

None

(blank)

-7

Ventrue

Camarilla

-7

Ahrimanes

Sabbat

-5

Daughter of Cacophony

Independent

-5

Nosferatu

Camarilla

-5

Tremere antitribu

Sabbat

-5

Malkavian

Camarilla

-4

Gangrel antitribu

Sabbat

-4

Ventrue antitribu

Sabbat

-4

Yes, Imbued. None? That would be The Lasombra’s doesn’t fit into a clan group. This just doesn’t seem all that telling without the actual totals, so here they are:

Clan

Sect

Wins 2011

Wins 2012

Wins – Total

Total

Imbued

Imbued

9

1

10

-8

Brujah

Camarilla

13

6

19

-7

None

(blank)

27

20

47

-7

Ventrue

Camarilla

19

12

31

-7

Ahrimanes

Sabbat

9

4

13

-5

Daughter of Cacophony

Independent

5

0

5

-5

Nosferatu

Camarilla

7

2

9

-5

Tremere antitribu

Sabbat

11

6

17

-5

Malkavian

Camarilla

17

13

30

-4

Gangrel antitribu

Sabbat

13

9

22

-4

Ventrue antitribu

Sabbat

12

8

20

-4

In terms of percentage lost, can’t beat DoC, who drop 100% in a year.

Not a lot of winners:

Clan

Sect

Total

Tremere

Camarilla

7

Gangrel

Independent

5

Lasombra

Sabbat

2

Follower of Set

Independent

2

Giovanni

Independent

2

Kiasyd

Sabbat

2

True Brujah

Independent

1

Nagaraja

Independent

1

Nosferatu antitribu

Sabbat

1

Ravnos

Independent

1

Caitiff

Camarilla

1

In truth, only really two winners, unless you want to include Nagaraja, who finally got a win. Even so, the jumps for Gangrel and Tremere seem modest, though what I saw last year was the biggest jump being 8 additional wins, so those two are pretty much normal for big jumps in a year. What may be less normal (have issue with not doing this that many years to get a larger sample size of deltas) is that only two jump significantly.

Another way to look at deltas is to get off the clan thing and look at “class”:

Class

Total

Bloodline

-18

Camarilla

-11

Imbued

-8

Independent

2

Laibon

-9

None

-7

Sabbat

-15

Grand Total

-66

Indies rock 2012!

Some other “class” data:

Class

Total

%

Bloodline

218

10%

Camarilla

704

34%

Imbued

62

3%

Independent

244

12%

Laibon

90

4%

None

196

9%

Sabbat

575

28%

Grand Total

2089

100%

All time. And, 2011-2012 …

Class

Total

%

Bloodline

78

16%

Camarilla

149

30%

Imbued

10

2%

Independent

52

11%

Laibon

39

8%

None

47

10%

Sabbat

115

23%

Grand Total

490

100%

It’s long, but I think some folks might want to see every clan together.

Clan

Wins 2011

Wins 2012

Wins – Total

Wins – All

Abomination

1

0

1

2

Ahrimanes

9

4

13

46

Akunanse

6

3

9

24

Assamite

7

4

11

50

Baali

9

6

15

33

Blood Brother

1

1

2

5

Brujah

13

6

19

68

Brujah antitribu

4

2

6

24

Caitiff

1

2

3

16

Daughter of Cacophony

5

0

5

13

Follower of Set

6

8

14

62

Gangrel

2

7

9

82

Gangrel antitribu

13

9

22

49

Gargoyle

6

4

10

35

Giovanni

10

12

22

91

Guruhi

9

7

16

26

Harbinger of Skulls

1

1

2

6

Imbued

9

1

10

62

Ishtarri

6

4

10

26

Kiasyd

4

6

10

30

Lasombra

7

9

16

86

Malkavian

17

13

30

131

Malkavian antitribu

8

6

14

90

Nagaraja

0

1

1

1

None

27

20

47

196

Nosferatu

7

2

9

72

Nosferatu antitribu

0

1

1

28

Osebo

3

1

4

14

Pander

2

1

3

27

Ravnos

2

3

5

41

Salubri

4

2

6

18

Salubri antritribu

1

0

1

6

Samedi

3

0

3

11

Toreador

13

12

25

99

Toreador antitribu

2

2

4

55

Tremere

8

15

23

91

Tremere antitribu

11

6

17

60

True Brujah

4

5

9

12

Tzimisce

6

6

12

79

Ventrue

19

12

31

145

Ventrue antitribu

12

8

20

77

Totals

278

212

490

2089

Just to be clear, the third data column is the total of 2011 and 2012. There’s only so much going back and messing with my pivot tables I wanted to do for presentation.

A lot of presentation and not much analysis. I built so many redundant charts I can’t think of what I want to speak to. Also, people can draw their own conclusions or be shocked to the extent that they didn’t already have an idea what these numbers would be.

In truth, it’s not so much being out of town for a while but not having enough inspiration on any one topic for not posting in almost three weeks.

So, vekn.net has a thread about choosing the best clan for a single group. I posted my thoughts on most defining clans for each (single) group and don’t know that that really qualifies as being a classic post. Instead, I wanted to take a look at what I haven’t played from a group perspective.

First, it’s easy to eliminate groups 1 and 2 because they’ve been around so long that I must have done enough permutations not to worry about missing out. Then, group 6 is something that I started into for a while to the point where I covered a significant amount of ground in what’s a not very deep group, even got me a tournament win, somehow. Oh, right, Kiasyd with Animalism is the most powerful thing ever.

Rather than go overboard, I thought I’d just take a look at only group 4/5 and what clans I may have underplayed and why.

Abomination

I had a Lorrie deck I played in a tournament, and I just find Zubeida boring, so not caring.

Baali

Just not a star vampire dude, yet I’ve played a decent amount with Nergal. Just not that compelled to play this grouping when I could play The Hordes, instead.

Blood Brother

No clan is harder to work with than BB. However, I really need to do more with the idea of ignoring Sanguinus and/or more ideas for Kiev. The reality is that I have decks written up, I just don’t bother playing them because BB are so antifun.

Brujah

Played some but just the P/J decks really. I so keep meaning to do something with Jack Drake, but that isn’t necessarily a Brujah deck. I’ll have to look through some of the unbuilt decklists.

Caitiff/Pander

Not a clan in the Caitiff case, but part of my reluctance is a sense that the drawbacks on new 1 caps are much worse than on old. Plus Scourge of the Enochians. Having seen people use some of the Newtiff and Newder, maybe it’s not as bad as I think.

Daughters of Cacophony

Group 4/5 is just so unappealing vis-a-vis group 2/3 or 5/6.

Gangrel

More than any other clan, Gangrel have lost ground. The main point with exercises like this one is to take a look at situations like the Gangrel in group 4/5. For instance, I didn’t realize how many weefolk there are in 4/5. Only one is missing Protean, so it’s not like they suck. Then, I find some of the big caps interesting, I just have a hard time using them as they lack close substitutes to avoid my reluctance to go superstar.

Gargoyles

Unique, slave Gargoyles don’t interest me. I just can’t get interested, and that some slaves are slaves to one clan and some to another is just awful. Plus, Tupdogs make a joke of anything else involving Gargoyles.

Giovanni

I feel like I’ve played a decent amount with group 4/5 Giovanni, even before Experiment #2, but I don’t feel like, outside of the experiment, that I’ve made any effort to play a “group 4/5” deck – a deck that just generally uses the grouping.

Malkavian

Here, it’s more a reluctance to play with Malks than anything else. So much “been there, done that” involved. I have a bunch of decks written up that use them, but antifun … for like the opposite reasons that BB are antifun (not exactly, but you know).

Nagaraja

For the person who very likely built more Nagaraja decks than anyone else in existence, probably more than 99% of the playerbase combined, I just can’t get that excited by this collection. Asguresh is interesting but not much of a Nagaraja. Yavu is nothing but disciplines. Prejudice is discipline impaired. Still more cohesive than group 5/6.

Nosferatu antitribu

I’ve played with group 4’s on occasion. Group 5 only has the one representative. This grouping just doesn’t feel that coherent, maybe because group 3/4 makes so much more sense.

Salubri

I rarely use Salubri as support. If I’m going to do a Salubri deck, it’s going to be 2/3 or 5/6 in most cases, these days.

Samedi

It’s amazing anyone defends group 4 Samedi. Sure, Morlock is good stuff. But, group 4 Samedi was about as atrociously bad a group of vampires for a clan possible when they were printed. I’ve increasingly used individuals and the expanded options of groups 4 and 5 make this collection less pathetic, but there are so many better things to do with group 2/3, and group 5/6 is just a funny restriction on deckbuilding.

Toreador

Only reason I’ve played these guys so much is Laecanus. “He who makes me fail.” There are a lot more things to do than try to make Laecanus worth including in one’s crypt. Dull and hardly new, but Toreador w/ Dominate is one way to go with this grouping. Andre LeRoux goes in every deck. Still not feeling a great sense of identity with 4/5, though.

Toreador antitribu

Group 5 isn’t offering enough to not play 3/4 instead. And, really, I quite like group 2, so I’d rather do some nostalgia decks and get more play in with the likes of Greta Kircher.

Tremere

Group 4/5 is so much “some of these are not like the others”, having some of the worst possible Tremere (Andrew Stuart, Miguel Cordovera), while having some I’d actually build around (Windham) and some that are totally forgettable.

Tzimisce

Contender for Gangrel’s title of “clan that lost the most” over time. This is just such a sorry group that, once you get past Tzimisce w/ Obfuscate, which group 5 doesn’t even help with and which just sucks, has nothing to pull you away from group 2/3. As an aside, Tzimisce really deserve a lot more, in general, like new clan cards. Aside, the second, if Laibonism was (sensibly) expanded to the other major African clans, Tzimisce would have a boatload of new vampires and might gain some interesting fourth discipline action, which neither Obfuscate nor Protean provides.

Ventrue

I don’t hate Ventrue. I just have disdain for how often original gangsta clans get played. This grouping is a perfectly good opportunity for me to do some new Ventrue action, even if it may end up looking like old Ventrue action. Well, I do like Hardestadt, just need to find him some buddies since I hate superstar decks.

Ventrue antitribu

Suffers from lack of group 5 adding much that matters disease. Admittedly, I’m not sure how much I want to play with !Ventrue, anyway, given how boringly effective they have become*.

* This is the sort of things V:TES should have done much more of. !Ventrue used to get tons of grief, with people wondering why they shouldn’t just play Ventrue (legit argument) or for dumber reasons. Having what is good and what isn’t evolve over time is crucial to keeping a CCG compelling. I may still enjoy the game, but there are many times I get discouraged by the lack of change.